A Different Reason
by mimi-cee
Summary: When Yachi's friend finds out that Tsukishima likes dinosaurs, she sets them up on a date at a certain museum in Sendai. But there aren't any dinosaurs there, so why would Tsukishima have an interest in that museum during college? (contains a mild manga spoiler)


This is an extended version of a scene in my other tsukiyachi story, Accidental Confession. The last part didn't fit there. I modified it to be a stand alone one shot and now it's technically even canon compliant. (Also, I can't promise that the information about the Miyagi prefecture is accurate even though I did some research.)

* * *

Tsukishima and Yachi watched as their friends ran off to another part of the museum. He didn't understand why Yachi's friend took Yamaguchi with her, but he didn't really care. He didn't mind that he was left alone with Yachi, but she looked a little nervous around him.

"Have they always been close?" Tsukishima pointed in the direction that they ran as he asked Yachi. He hadn't really seen the two of them talk before today so it was a surprise to him.

Yachi looked a little unsure. "I don't know. I think Mei has been helping him with volleyball though."

Tsukishima sighed and then figured that they could just look through the museum without them. But then something caught his eye in Yachi's hair. "Is that a dinosaur in your hair?"

Yachi flinched as she automatically reached for her side ponytail. "Yeah, Mei gave it to me recently. I thought it looked cute so I wore it today."

Tsukishima thought for a moment and sighed. He realized that Mei was likely trying to set him up with Yachi and that Yamaguchi was probably feeding information about him to her. Not a lot of people knew that he had a soft spot for dinosaurs. He didn't understand why they were at the Sendai City Museum though. It was a historical museum about their prefecture. There weren't any dinosaurs here.

The two high schoolers started to proceed through the museum. Some of the information signs indicated the times of the tours that were occurring that day. Yachi commented on how well the signs were designed and wondered who had created them. Tsukishima wasn't surprised that the signs and pamphlets caught her eye.

They decided to check out the next tour and waited for it to start. As they hung out in the lobby, they saw some people taking pictures with a face cutout board. On the board was Date Masamune, the feudal lord who founded Sendai. His armour was one of the major artifacts that were held at the museum, so it wasn't surprising that they had a cutout board of him. The black samurai armour he wore looked kind of like a Darth Vader costume.

"Tsukishima come! I can take a picture of you as Date Masamune!" said Yachi excitedly. Tsukishima flat out denied her offer, but she continued to insist. "But I brought my camera and wanted to take pictures of our memories here."

Tsukishima sighed, but then reluctantly agreed. He stood behind the cutout board and crouched down a bit to place his face in the hole. Yachi giggled at him because his glasses and blond hair didn't match with the era. "Just take the picture already," he told her.

After she did, a young mom and dad were waiting for their kids to have their turn. The mom asked them, "Did you want me to take a picture of you two at the other cutout?" She was referring to the one with Date Masamune with his wife.

"Uhh...," Tsukishima started to reply. But before he knew it, Yachi had already given her the camera and was standing behind the board.

"Come on Tsukishima!" she called out to him with a grin. He just smirked back at her before he joined her behind the board.

During the tour, they learned more about the Date clan and how Date Masamune turned Sendai from a small fishing town to a prosperous city. Tsukishima seemed to remember some of the content from their social studies classes, but they learned more of the details here. Tsukishima noticed that Yachi started to take an interest in Date Masamune's eldest daughter, Irohahime, and her story.

Irohahime was considered to be a beautiful and intelligent woman. Her younger brother even went to her for advice even though he was the next heir of the clan. She was placed in a political marriage with the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was effectively the ruler of Japan at that time. But when her husband was exiled, she never remarried even when her parents encouraged her to. Some sources say she was a Christian which would explain why she didn't want to marry another man since Christian doctrine discouraged divorce. It would have be interesting if that was the case because her father-in-law had actually banned Christianity and persecuted the Christians.

"I think that she didn't marry again not only because she had made a vow before God, but also because she had actually fell in love with her husband," speculated the tour guide. "Imagine being in an arranged marriage with a man only to fall in love with him in the end." The tour guide squealed at the thought. "She must have been so heart-broken at her young age when her husband was sent to exile. And she stayed loyal to him even though her parents tried to find other suitors for her!"

"I think this tour guide is more of a historical fiction fangirl than a legitimate historian," Tsukishima commented to Yachi.

But when he turned to look at her, he flinched at seeing tears streaming from her eyes. "That was so romantic," said Yachi with a sniff. But to her surprise, the tour guide went on to a different topic as she led the group out of the room. "Wait! That's it? Irohahime became my favourite historical figure within five minutes! That can't be it!" cried out Yachi.

Tsukishima smirked at her reaction. "Well, maybe one day someone at the museum will be able to find out more about her."

Yachi smiled at his reassurance. "Thanks Tsukishima. I'll look forward to that."

* * *

Tsukishima laid on his bed after he got home from one of his college exams. He was mentally tired and decided to browse on his phone.

Beside him, on the top of his bookshelf, his volleyball and knee pads were set next to his miniature dinosaurs. Underneath, he had his archaeology and history textbooks from his past few years of college. He also had two framed photos of their museum trip on the bookshelf. At the cutout board of Date Masamune and his wife, Tsukishima wore an indifferent look while she had a big grin. The other picture had the two of them with a drawing of Irohahime.

Tsukishima replied to a message from Yachi, but he got interrupted by an email notification. It was from an HR representative from the Sendai City Museum. He quickly sat up from his bed and took a closer look at the email. A grin escaped from his mouth as he read it again. He couldn't believe he got the job and that he would be starting right after college.

When he realized how excited he was about the email, he groaned at his unexpected reaction. With a scoff of disbelief, he said to himself, "I can't believe I'm doing this."

* * *

I hope you liked the story. I actually wasn't intentionally planning on writing about the museum. I was trying to figure out a place for their set up date. Initially it was a mall, then an aquarium, and then I checked if Miyagi even had an aquarium. That's when I saw that the Sendai City Museum was listed as an attraction and decided to check out it. I thought it looked familiar and checked the manga again. :D


End file.
